Latest blogs

Emily Lunnon: Your skin reflects your state of health and well-being. Every day of your life, pollution, grime, and dust attach themselves to the surface of your skin.
However, in winter, the skin is covered up and does not get the same chance to breathe. Dry heat in houses, offices and cars also means the skin gets dehydrated, leaving us and therefore our skin looking sluggish instead of bright and shining. We are prone to exercise less which does not stimulate our metabolism as well. So, as we get ready for winter it is time to think about health generally. Our skin will glow healthily when we look after our mind and body too.

Calgary Avansino: Although I have always been very conscious about the food that I eat, the exercise I do and the products I clean my house with, my skincare and cosmetics regime lacked serious attention for a long while. I think, like many women, I just accepted the marketing and product names for what they were, and never looked much further than the packaging – I certainly never read the ingredients label, or considered what those long, unpronounceable words meant for my body.

Emma Reinhold: The sad news that organic pioneer Horst Rechelbacher, best known as the man who founded Aveda has died after a brave two year battle with pancreatic cancer, comes as a huge loss, both for the organic industry and the wider business world. Austrian-born Rechelbacher was an eco-visionary, whose drive and passion has helped to shape the organic beauty movement we recognise and champion today. Not only did he demonstrate that it's possible to build hugely successful businesses based on organic principles, he helped make green values the norm, not the exception.

Peter Melchett: Methylisothiazolinone, Phthalates, Parabens, PEGs - (polyethylene glycols, Non-natural Propylene Glycol (PG), Cocamide DEA... I could go on. You would wash the floor with some of these, clean your oven with them, find them in antifreeze or use some of them to redecorate your house, some are banned in food or children's toys because of the risk that they are carcinogens, so would you knowingly put them on your skin? It alarms me that all are found in the bathrooms of our homes in health and beauty products, more worryingly some are even found in products labeled as 'natural' or 'nature inspired'.

Anna Louise Batchelor: My first ever organic purchases weren’t food, they were skincare products. Why? At the time I was a student involved with the Women’s Environment Network (WEN). They exposed me to the ugly truth behind mainstream beauty products. Through WEN’s research and campaigning I was quickly educated on the nasties of beauty. I learnt that many mainstream products contain chemicals that can cumulatively lead to an increased incidence of hormone disruption, birth defects, bladder and breast cancer. I decided that something natural, something organic was what I wanted.So off I went on my bike to shop for organic skin care products, returning with a clinking collection of little blue glass bottles.